Rev.14: 1 “ And I looked, and, lo, a Lamb stood on the mount Sion, and with him an hundred forty and four thousand, having his Father’s name written in their foreheads.

Rev.5: 9 And they sung a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof: for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation;

10 And hast made us unto our God kings and priests: and we shall reign on the earth.

While Moses in Exodus 15, sang the song of ‘deliverance’ of the wilderness church from the hands of Pharaoh and his men in the red Sea, the redeemed of the Lord today through the blood of Jesus are singing a new song which is the song of ‘redemption’. It is a new song because only the redeemed in Christ knows it and can sing it.

The song tells of our new place and position in Christ and on the earth, “kings and priests” . Kings rule and priests reconciles, so friends, this is not a fulfilled eschatology of AD 70. It’s an ongoing event and prophecy that can be manifested by any one that have come under the blood of the Lamb and now have the Christ resident within him. He is the head and we are his Body, he is actually ruling and reconciling the earth and men through us as his expression on the Earth just as we read of

Rev.14: 1 “ And I looked, and, lo, a Lamb stood on the mount Sion, and with him an hundred forty and four thousand, having his Father’s name written in their foreheads.

I have stated that this Book of Revelation is a spiritual Book to a spiritual people in the new order of the kingdom of God which is a spiritual kingdom as compared to the physical kingdom of Israel.

There is no doubt that here in this Book, Babylon the great could be used to describe Jerusalem in AD 70, as a religious city that killed the prophets and even Jesus Christ. But can we not see that, that was not the beginning of the use of that name. The fact is Babylon got its spiritual meaning right from Gen 11. When men started building a Tower that can reach up to heaven and God confounded their language thereby putting a stop to it. So we have Babel as a city of religious confusion. Meaning Babylon is man’s attempting to be independent of God and yet wants to get to God through human efforts. Yet the word says except the Lord build the house, they labour that build but in even. Jesus said I will build my church. Jesus said he is the stone that the builders refused who shall later become the chief cornerstone.

This then is the mystery of Babylon, it is a spirit in man and it’s not just limited to Jerusalem of old alone. Just like Jezebel mentioned in the Book of Revelation was not the origin of that name, but took its root from the activities and life of King Ahab’wife, it is a spirit that wants to usurp authority that is not hers. And it can be found in both male and female. So in this Book, we are actually without doubt dealing with spiritual realities and not just history that can shut itself down in AD 70.

THE SEALED 144,000 IS SYMBOLIC OF SPIRITUAL ISRAEL

Rev.14: 1 “ And I looked, and, lo, a Lamb stood on the mount Sion, and with him an hundred forty and four thousand, having his Father’s name written in their foreheads”

One of the most confusing aspects in the interpretation of the Book of Revelation is to have it in correspondence to the Book of Daniel. Yes, there are motifs from the Book of Daniel that can be found in the Book of Revelation going by apocalyptic writings. But the truth is, while the Book of Daniel was not only an Old Testament prophecy., It basically concerned itself with literal, physical, outward, earthly events transpiring in the world of literal, physical, natural and outward laws of ritual ceremonies even in their laws and ordinances etc etc.

But under the New Testament in which the Book of Revelation is represented, it’s completely a different thing as God’s people are a spiritual people born from above as opposed to the physical Israel old. Here we have the laws of God written in our hearts, unlike Israel that have theirs written in tablets of stone. Especially, then we can see that the Book of Revelation not sent to the Natural Israel of God after the flesh, but to His Spiritual Israel after the Spirit, his heavenly citizens of heavenly Jerusalem.

If this Book is a prophecy, as stated (Rev. 22:19), for the called out ones, that is the Church.

Rev.1: 1 “The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto him, to shew unto his servants things which must shortly come to pass; and he sent and signified it by his angel unto his servant John”

3 Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein: for the time is at hand.

Those who hear the prophecy of this Book are blessed.

“Blessed — happy — to be envied — are they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein: for the time is at hand” (Rev. 1:3). Ampl.

Let me touch one more thing here briefly and move on to discuss a few things in relation to what men called fulfilled eschatology of the 144,00 standing with the Lamb on Mount Zion.

These opening words are something interesting to behold. Do you know a lot of people don’t like reading the Book of Revelation because of fear based on how men have interpreted the Book by illustrating and revealing the devil, the Ant Christ , Armageddon, earthquakes, killings , failing economy , climate change to destroy all mankind, Israel to fight with Russia or Iran resulting in Third world war, now of late Russian with Turkey etc?

Rev.1: 1 “The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto him, to shew unto his servants things which must shortly come to pass; and he sent and signified it by his angel unto his servant John”

We have indicated that this Book is written in prophetic symbols for it was ..sent and signified.., We can see that The book of Revelation falls into a form of writing called “Apocalyptic literature”. This was developed as a distinctly Jewish genre. It began with them and developed with them and then the Christians continued to use it. It is a form of writing that is highly symbolic and yet prophetic.

It was commonly employed by the prophets in their writings, especially Books like Ezekiel etc. They were more or less like parables, and you found that Jesus employed similar manner of teachings, such that he will tell the disciples, for you it is given to know the mystery of the kingdom but for those without these are done in parables. And anytime he finishes teaching like this he will say,

“He that hath ears to hear, let him hear!” (Mat. 11:15). Same thing he said to the seven Churches in Asia..“He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches;”

Now , the very nature of a symbol is that it means something else other than what is being said on the surface, otherwise it would not be a symbol! For instance, in the Greek language the word angel means a messenger and so in the book of Revelation the angel stands for a message and the messenger! Not necessarily a wing creature like we have been made to believe. In Luke 7: 24, we are told of the messengers of John.

Rev.1: 1 “The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto him, to shew unto his servants things which must shortly come to pass; and he sent and signified it by his angel unto his servant John”

In continuing with these thoughts on the Book of Revelation, let it be noted that am only here to highlight a few things that will enable us do a thorough study of what the Book is all about Endeavouring to ensure that, we have to see beyond the letters of the word here written, and that which is called historical fulfillment into the reality of what the Father is conveying to us through the Son in the spirit of truth.

For those of us who say this Book should be interpreted literally or that it is already a fulfilled Book. What do we do with passages like this..

Rev.14: 1 “And I looked, and, lo, a Lamb stood on the mount Sion, and with him an hundred forty and four thousand, having his Father’s name written in their foreheads”.

Rev.1: 1 “The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto him, to shew unto his servants things which must shortly come to pass; and he sent and signified it by his angel unto his servant John”

Again we emphasis what we are dealing here in these studies, and that is this none fact, the Book is about the person of Jesus Christ therefore it cannot just be relegated to past history and claimed to have been fulfilled. While it is true that Jesus life has a fulfilled aspect in his redemption work in human history, even so there are fulfilled statements, verses and portions of the Book that really can be seen from historical perspective. Bu the overall concern is the Revelation of a person and his dealing with his Church and humanity and so cannot be said to be fulfilled ultimately, rather it is a progressive fulfilling Book with prophetic insight. It is the work, life of the Anointed Saviour, Jesus Christ.

Furthermore, in speaking of himself in Luke , he said, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because He hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor: He hath sent me to heal the broken-hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, and to set at liberty them that are bruised.”

We have people who say that Christ is the anointing,

Rev.1: 1 “The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto him, to shew unto his servants things which must shortly come to pass; and he sent and signified it by his angel unto his servant John”

Now, what is this Book all about going by this simple introduction in verse 1? It is the “Revelation of Jesus Christ”. So it’s not the Revelation about some other things but of a person like we said earlier on. But now, let’s get it right, It is not the revelation of “Jesus” — neither is it the revelation of “Christ.” But, and very important please! It is the revelation of JESUS CHRIST! It is a revelation of a compound name if you will. Although you may not be able to separate both Jesus and Christ ultimately forever, but here is a revelation and manifestation of JESUS distinct from that of CHRIST.

The name Jesus simply means Saviour. “Thou shalt call His name Jesus (Yashua, Yahweh is Salvation), for He shall save His people from their sins” (Mat. 1:21). The word says!. So we found that the name Jesus reveals His ‘Saviourship’.

When Jesus asked his disciples,

What is this Book really all about? Is it some dragon and the Antichrist? Is it all just about Israel of old? Almost all phases of Christianity have one thing or the other to say about this Book. There are some who say the Book is already fulfilled in AD 70 because Israel is the Babylon the great mentioned therein, therefore it’s already a fulfilled Book and so we have nothing to do with it. Yes! The word says “ the things that shortly come to pass” surely for the seven churches that he was writing to, he sure visited them, but does that exclude the fact that the Book is an ongoing continuous fulfilling Book,?

For the author himself is ever living and knowing that he was writing to his Body the Church? Is it not possible to have a repeat of these things that happened in those seven churches today, therefore having a repeat of what he promised them then? The promise of giving the tree of life to the overcomer, must it end with those Churches in Asia? Is the tree of life an old tree that has passed away or that is it Christ himself? Is it not true that all that the seven churches overcome could be our

Christian Journeying to maturity as we overcome them and so receiving the promise therein?

“..Whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished: But the heavens and the earth, which
are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of
ungodly me….. Nevertheless we, according to His promise, look for new heavens and new earth, wherein dwelleths
righteousness..”

The need to understand the use of the word AGE (AION) AND WORLD (KOSMOS).
What do we really mean by the term “The end of the world” “The elements shall melt
with fervent heart” “the world to come” etc. Are all these referring to the physical globe? What exactly are the
“Heavens and earth that shall pass away”? What is the nature of the fire that will do this melting? What influence will
it have on us to know that, there is a different between the use of the words AGE and the word WORLD? etc.

AGE in the Greek is“AION” and may refer to a period of time in man’s history, whether having or not having specific dates of demarcation. “space of time” “clearly defined and marked out epoch” “age” and also “life time”, “life” and generation”.

For instance, when we read that Christ” will rule as king over the house of Jacob forever” Luke 1:33,it literally means “to (for) ages”. And the “fig tree” that was also cursed “forever” Math. 21:19 is also for the ages “or “age abiding” which is actually the house of Jacob (Jer. 8:13) referring to the Old Covenant that shall pass away forever. Heb.8: 13.

Another good example, of the meaning of the word, is found in Luke. 20:34-35 which says, “The sons of this AGE marry-but those worthy of that AGE and the resurrection – neither marry nor are given in marriage”. Compare Mk. 10:30. It denotes a long period of time, as in Acts 2:21, 15:18, Luke 1:33. Referring to the time of the prophecies about Christ, before the final fulfillment.

So we can see that, the basic sense of “AION is “AGE” or “PERIOD of EXISTENCE” and it often denotes a long space of time. (Jn.1:45). Liddell and Scots “A Greek-English Lexicon” (P 45) List as a definition of AION: “Space of time” clearly defined and marked out epoch, age, and era. It signifies a period of indefinite duration, or time viewed in relation to what takes place in the period”.

And in this sense, the word AION is very close in meaning to the word WORLD (KOSMOS) which means “an order, SYSTEM OR ARRANGEMENT OF THINGS” In Gal. 1:4 we read of our being “delivered from the present evil world” KJV. “Present evil age” RSV. “Rescued us from the present evil world order” JP Philips. “Present age of wickedness” N.E.B. “Present wicked world” (Jerusalem Bible) “Present wicked system of things” (Int. Linear Trans.)

So you see, what is meant by the WORLD is not the globe, the stars in the galaxy or planets known and unknown.
Neither is it referring to the universes, but rather to the way of life, social structures, cultures, philosophies, political
ideologies, religion and the economic lifestyle of humanity, devised by man himself outside of God. It speaks of the
products of the carnal mind of man, which is enmity and death, Rom. 8:7-8 “for the whole world system, based as it
is on MEN’S PRIMITIVE DESIRES, THEIR GREEDY AMBITIONS and THE GLAMOUR OF ALL THAT THEY THINK SPLENDID” but “not derived from the father” “and we also know that the world around us is under the power
of the evil one? 1 Jn. 2:16; 5:19 (Philips).

Therefore when Paul wrote “quit being fashioned after this system of things, but be transformed by making your
mind over” (Rom. 12:2 (Int. Linear Trans)

it was not the time, period of itself that set the fashion, pattern or models for the people of that time, that he was saying they should change from. But the standards, practices, manners,
customs, ways, outlooks, styles and other features that formed the life style of that age. Walking in the way of the
world, is what the bible says in Eph. 2:2 as “following the course of this world “RSV. “Following the way of this world” Jb “when you followed the evil ways of this present age” N.E.B. “that you drifted along on the stream of this world’s ideas of living, and obeyed its unseen ruler (who is still operating in those who do not respond to the truth of God” .. (Philips).

Therefore “… the grace of God has appeared for the salvation of ALL MEN, training us to renounce irreligion and worldly passions, and to live sober, upright, and godly lives in this world, for he gave Himself for us, that He might rescue us from all our EVIL WAYS and make for Himself a people of His own, clean and pure, with our hearts set upon Living a life that is good” Titus 2:11, 12, 14 (RSV, Philips).

To be continued …

(c) 2015 – Dr. Daivd O. Ogaga